Teen girl in landlord case died pregnant

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, March 4, 2000

OAKLAND - A teenage girl whose carbon monoxide poisoning death led to federal charges that a Berkeley landlord smuggled her from India to have sex with her was pregnant, an autopsy report says.

A small mass, 8 centimeters in diameter and thought to be a fetus, was found in the girl's uterus, according to a copy of the Alameda County coroner's report obtained by The Examiner on Friday.

The girl, first identified as Sita Vemireddy, 17, and her younger sister, 15, were found unconscious by their third roommate in their one-bedroom apartment in downtown Berkeley the day before Thanksgiving last November. Sita was pronounced dead at Alta Bates Medical Center, while her sister was treated and released the following day.

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Although an autopsy of Sita's body was completed soon after, investigators were unable to close the case because they wanted to double-check the girl's pregnancy, deputy coroner Michael Yost said Friday.

The case was reviewed by doctors at Stanford University Medical Center, who last month concurred with Alameda County investigators' conclusion that she was pregnant.

"We needed confirmation in the issue of pregnancy . . . and that has been confirmed," Yost said.

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The development is the latest twist in the case against Berkeley real estate tycoon Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was indicted in federal court last month on a variety of allegations including one charge that he illegally brought under-age girls from his home town of Velvadam in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to have sex with them.

Reddy, 62, who owns more than

1,100 apartment units in Berkeley, was released on $10 million bail and was ordered to stay at his brother's home in Merced.

His son, Vijay Lakireddy, also faces federal charges that he conspired to bring Indians into the United States illegally through his software company by fraudulently using skilled-worker visas called an H1-B.

Lakireddy was released on $500,000 bail.

Reddy's other son, Prasad Lakireddy, refused comment Friday when asked whether he or his father knew that Sita had been pregnant.

"I don't know, sir," Prasad Lakireddy said. "I have no idea. . . . You have to call my father's attorney, Ted Cassman. Because this case is so huge, we're not talking to reporters."

Cassman said late Friday afternoon that he hadn't seen the autopsy report.

'Extremely tragic situation'

"This would be just one more sad development in an extremely tragic situation," he said. "If it is true that the deceased young woman is pregnant, then that evidence will show that she had sexual relations with someone other than our client."

Cassman refused to elaborate on his statement or comment further on whether Reddy had had sexual relations with the girl.

Berkeley police spokesman Bobby Miller also refused comment, saying although his investigators were aware of the coroner's findings, his detectives had not received a copy of the autopsy report.

"Right at the moment, we don't have the report, and I'm not going to comment on it right now," Miller said late Friday afternoon. "We won't have any response today."

He also refused comment on whether DNA tests would be con

ducted.

Yost said his office had no reason to order the test since their job was to simply determine the victim's cause of death, which was carbon monoxide poisoning.

"There hasn't been any DNA testing done by this office or ordered by this office," he said.

But the testing could prove instrumental in figuring out whether the girl became pregnant with Reddy, a San Francisco medical examiner administrator said.

'Amazing things with the DNA'

"You can do amazing things with the DNA," said Charlie Newman, an administrator in The City's medical examiner's office. "You can isolate the fetal tissue, and I would guess that you can do a comparison (with the defendant's DNA)."

The allegations that Reddy had an elaborate scheme to smuggle illegal immigrants from Velvadam mushroomed when Berkeley police received anonymous letters that the identities of Sita and her sister were false.

Police detectives, in turn, contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is working in conjunction with the U.S. attorney's office in prosecuting Reddy and his son.

Matthew J. Jacobs, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, refused to comment Friday on the coroner's findings.

The girls were first thought to be daughters of Venkateswara Vemireddy and his purported wife, Padma, and that the family had emigrated from India last August. Later investigation revealed that the couple were actually brother and sister and that they were not related to the girls at all.

According to court records, Reddy offered to pay Venkateswara Vemireddy's debt in India, and also gave him $6,500 for a pair

of airplane tickets to the United States for him and his sister. In return, the two posed as the girls' parents and also brought them over.

When they landed in San Francisco International Airport last August, Reddy stashed the girls in a one-bedroom apartment near his downtown Berkeley real estate office and placed the Vemireddys in a studio apartment a couple of blocks away, court papers say.

Rumored pregnancy

In statements given to police by Sita's sister and her third roommate, Reddy had known all three girls for a few years in Velvadam. The girls worked in a house owned by Reddy, and that's when the defendant started having sexual relations with them, according to court records.

A rumor that Sita might have been pregnant was circulating even in India in recent weeks.

When an Examiner reporter met last month with N. Kishore, police inspector of Krishna District, which includes Velvadam, the officer said there had been some talk in the area that Sita had been with child.

However, the girl's parents, Germany and Lakshmi Pratipati, said they didn't know that their daughter had been pregnant.

Although only federal charges have been filed against Reddy and his son, the Alameda County district attorney's office is investigating the case.

Karen Meredith, who is in charge of the district attorney's sexual crime unit, said Thursday it hadn't been determined when and if state charges would be filed against either of the defendants.

Federal prosecutors filed a motion last week asking for voice and handwriting samples from Reddy and his son in order to allow authorities to compare them with al

leged fraudulent visa applications and an emergency call made on the day Sita died.

The defendants' attorneys this week agreed to give the samples, but also asked that some of the charges of bringing in immigrants illegally be dismissed because no such people have been named.

Prosecutors have until Tuesday to file a response to the defense attorneys' arguments.

The next federal court hearing for Reddy and his son is set for April 11 in U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong's courtroom in Oakland. &lt;